Situation
At LEAPS schools (Learning and Engagement through Authentic Projects with a focus on Science), teaching is turned into real-world projects, where students work on issues that extend beyond the classroom. The ambition is to create a school experience that both provides solid subject knowledge and develops the competences students will need in life outside school. Along the way, both teachers and students are active co-creators, which strengthens the sense of community and fosters strong ownership of learning.
Complication
The initial experiences have been very promising – students have reported greater motivation and engagement. However, the question remains which approaches work best in practice. To strengthen the initiative, it has therefore been necessary to identify the effect that LEAPS actually has on both students and teachers. This was done through a quantitative impact evaluation based on a matching design, in which the LEAPS schools were compared with similar schools outside the programme. In this way, we have been able to isolate the programme’s impact and gain a more precise picture of what drives students’ and teachers’ outcomes and motivation.
Recommendation
The evaluation has shone a spotlight on the factors that make the greatest difference. The insights not only provide an overview of the experiences, but also a shared starting point for strengthening and developing project-based learning across the schools. The ambition is that the LEAPS schools use this knowledge to enhance their own efforts and implement the most effective approaches in practice. In this way, the impact of their project-based learning can be further improved.
